'MAP OF PERSIA, WITH A MEMORANDUM AND INDEX.' [‎3v] (11/57)

4
MEMORANDUM ON THE NEW MAP OF PERSIA.
I would fain hope, a decided advance upon any previous map on the
same scale of the countries concerned.
The materials which I had collected, and of which a tabulated
catalogue will be appended, fall under four headings:—( 1 ) Published
English maps, and, in the case of the sea-coast, Admiralty charts;
( 2 ) similar Kussian and German maps—of which the former, relating
principally to the regions bordering on their own dominions (the
Russian maps of the rest of Pers a being as a rule very meagre and
inadequate), are the result for the most part of semi-official surveys;
while the latter are generally compilations from the most recent
materials, from whatsoever source derived; ( 3 ) maps constructed by,
or in the possession of the Intelligence Departments, both in London
and Simla, which have been most courteously placed at m 3 ' disposal;
and (4) the surveys or itineraries of travellers, published either in
books or in the Proceedings of Geographical Societies, whether in
England or on the Continent.
As regards the preference assigned to this over that material,
surveys have of course invariably been preferred to reconnaissances,
and the more detailed to the less detailed or unscientific surveys ; later
material has naturally claimed a larger share of notice than earlier,
though cases have occurred where the labours of a remote explorer have
passed into quite undeserved oblivion, and have been found to contain
more minute and accurate information than the accepted commonplaces
of later maps. In the cases—how frequent I should hardly like to
confess where our authorities have disagreed, the pros and cons have
not been lightly balanced before a decision was made.
I he scale adopted is 60 miles to the inch, which is uniform with
that already applied to the Societ 3 T, s large map of Tibet, still in course
ot execution ; and which, while presenting a sheet rather larger than
Keith Johnston s Royal Atlas, can jet be folded into a size, handy both
to the traveller and to the student.
Of the scientific value of the work upon which all Persian carto
graphy has hitherto been baseO, it is undesirable that an incorrect
impression should prevail. No Persian survey has ever been made or
anywhere exists, in the same sense as it dees, not merely in British
India, but in the contiguous countries of Afghanistan and Beluchistan,